


The Lasting Moment

by Emeryuu



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Anniversary, Canon Compliant, Extra Content Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-18 02:33:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5894698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emeryuu/pseuds/Emeryuu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nicky visits to tell his friends and family about his and Erik's plans for their second anniversary. Curious, he asks Neil when he and Andrew celebrate theirs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lasting Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little thing I couldn't get from my head... I hope you'll enjoy.

The doorbell rang unexpected in the silence of Neil and Andrew’s flat. It was eight in the morning and Neil was tired after the game last night. He didn’t feel like getting up, but the look on the other side of the bed told him he had to.

There was no Andrew in sight and no sound of him moving around the flat. With a groan, Neil got up and left the bedroom, only stopping to pull on sweatpants lying on the floor.

The doorbell rang again, now longer and more impatient.

“I’m coming,” Neil murmured as if the person on the other side could hear him.

“Neil? Andrew? Open up, I know you are home,” Nicky’s voice couldn’t be mistaken with anyone’s else.

Now knowing, who was waiting for him, Neil wasn’t hurrying much. After all, it was Nicky’s fault to drop unexpected so early.

“Guys, come on! I just come from German two hours ago. I could really use some sofa right now.” Nicky sounded close to crying.

“You should call,” Neil finally reached the door and opened it. Nicky sent him a blinding grin in response and walked in with confidence of someone being there often. Which was funny, because Nicky saw their flat only once, when Andrew told him he bought it. 

“God, I could kill for a cup of coffee, you know,” he stopped in the centre of the living room and looked around curiously. “Where’s Andrew?”

“Shopping, probably. You woke me up, so I’m not sure.

Neil went to the kitchen and started preparing coffee for the cousin and breakfast for himself. Nicky followed him and sat at the high stool by the counter and watched Neil moving around.

“Where’s Erik?” It was strange to see Nicky without his husband. Since they graduated from Palmetto State the couple was almost inseparable.

“He has work in Berlin, couldn’t come with me.” There was sadness in Nicky’s voice Neil remembered form the time they were still Foxes. It appeared every time Nicky remembered how far Erik was. “But I couldn’t postpone this visit, so here I am!” he finished with smile.

“It’s May. You usually visit in June,” noticed Neil. Nicky and Erik visited every year in summer. Sometimes, it was an occasion for almost all Foxes from their time to gather, but more often Nicky and Erik just visited them one by one to catch up.

“Yeah, but this time, we won’t be able to come in June,” now Nicky’s eye were lit up with excitement.

Neil couldn’t get over how easy it was to read his every expression. Or maybe he was so good at reading people thanks to Andrew. Because no amount of living on the run could prepare him to the level of observing and analyzing that was needed while dealing with Andrew. Neil could see now that Nicky was waiting for him to ask further questions.

He was standing with his back to Nicky, taking the mugs from the cupboard, so he let himeslf roll his eyes fondly.

“Why won’t you be able to?”

“It’s our second anniversary and Erik insisted to do something special.” Nicky was smiling his happiest smile. “We are going to visit India. I can’t wait. Maybe I’ll be able to ride an elephant? That would be amazing, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, probably.” Neil put the mug of coffee in front of Nicky. “I hope you’ll have a great time.”

“Thank you, Neil. You are so sweet.” There was something in Nicky’s face Neil could only describe as pure joy. It has been always present since the day he and Erik got married. “Oh, that reminds me,” he furrowed his brow and looked at Neil, “when is yours anniversary?”

“What anniversary?” Neil asked confused.

“Yours. Your and Andrew’s. The anniversary of when you got together. You must have a day like that.”

“We don’t have one,” Neil sat down in front of Nicky with his own coffee. He wasn’t hungry and he hoped Andrew would pick some food.

“What? That’s impossible! Why?” Nicky looked horrified. “You don’t celebrate that you are together? And never have?”

“Yeah,” was the only thing Neil said.

“I can’t understand you two sometimes. You love each other so much. You’ve been together for so long, but you defy everything I believe about relationships.”

Neil knew Nicky wouldn’t leave the subject until he understood. There wasn’t any other way than to explain and hope it’ll be enough for Nicky. He didn’t wish for him to experience what Andrew would to Nicky if the cousin asked him about that topic.

“One reason is that we don’t have a specific day we ‘got’ together you know. It just started one day and it wasn’t permanent arrangement then. Just a thing we both wanted. And by the time we knew it was something serious, something that would last, it was already in progress.” Neil wasn’t looking at Nicky as he spoke. His eyes were settled on the mug nursed between his hands on the counter. “What day should we pick up as our anniversary? The day he kissed me for the first time? I don’t even remember to be honest. The day in Baltimore? In that hotel? A bit too close to my Wesninski’s memories. The day me and Aaron swapped rooms? The day we won the finals? Each of them was a breaking point and each was important, so how could we pick one and decide ‘that’s the moment’? We can’t Nicky, that’s how it is for me and Andrew.”

“But you know, Neil,” Nicky was uncharacteristically serious, “celebrating an anniversary is a way of saying ‘we’ve spent another year together, thank you and I love you.’ Isn’t it nice to do something like that to the most important person in your life? 

“And that’s the second reason,” said Neil.

He thought about cigarettes, one in Andrew’s mouth, second in Neil’s hand. They were the brand Neil’s mother was smoking. He remembered a party in Vegas before Dan and Matt’s wedding and standing on the balcony together. He thought about long drives in the middle of the night, just both of them and the sound of the car only thing between them. He thought about entering the court together in one team for the first time since they were Foxes.

Neil was twenty six now, so it meant they were together for seven years now. Seven years of understanding, of trust, of silence that wasn’t cold, wasn’t empty. But silence that carried more than words ever could. Their silence meant there was nothing else, no one else.

“We don’t want to count years,” Neil spoke again. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I see how happy you are to celebrate with Erik. But it’s not like that with Andrew. We both were counting something in the past. I was counting the days I was left before Wesninski or Moriyamas killed me, Andrew was counting down until he was left with nothing to live for. So now, when we have this life, we don’t want to put it into something that can be measured. It’s going to last till with die, so why? Me and Andrew, we both know it’s not going to end. Why should we break forever into little pieces?”

There was a silence following the last words. Nicky was looking at Neil unblinkingly, like he saw him for the first time.

“I think that’s the most I heard from you about your relationship,” he said finally. “And it was amazing. It always catches me off guard how deep you care for each other.”

“I keep saying ‘we’ but it’s more my opinion,” admitted Neil. “We never really talked about that, but neither of us came with the idea of celebrating, so I assume Andrew thinks similarly.”

“For once, you said something intelligent, Abram.” A voice from the doorway caught Neil and Nicky’s attention.

There was Andrew, standing with a bag full of groceries. Cats, which Neil haven’t seen before, now were rubbing themselves on Andrew’s legs. They didn’t see him coming, too caught up on their conversation.

“Andrew!” Nicky greeted his cousin, turning toward him. “Me and Neil were just…” He wasn’t sure what to say. 

Andrew only looked at him not amused and came to the counter to put the bag on it.

“I heard.”

“And?” Nicky couldn’t help himself, he had to ask. “Do you think the same as Neil?”

Andrew sat next to Neil and took his coffee. He took a sip before answering Nicky in a bored voice, like he was stating something trivial.

“We said that ‘this’ was going to be ‘always,’ so there’s nothing more to talk about.”

**Author's Note:**

> How was it? ^ ^
> 
> Please, leave a comment or a kudo if you liked it <3


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